Should You ‘Feng Shui’ Your Investments?

Leaving the Philippines on a Chinese New Year’s Eve after a very busy yet happy and abundant Christmas vacation could either mean good or bad luck for the superstitious. Honestly, I was very anxious a week before our flight for no clear reasons other than my fear of flying.

I’ve been telling my wife and friends that I loved traveling by plane when I was still single. Heck, I even loved it when there’s turbulence and air pockets.

But things changed as years go by. Priorities come and new responsibilities arise. You get married and have kids and that could change the course of your actions and your rising levels of fear of flying. One has to leave the country to invest for a better, if not best, future. But that’s just me.

But leaving on the eve of The Year of the Horse, which began last Friday, is very dangerous, according to some feng shui masters. One feng shui master even mentioned that this year is a dangerous one for traveling and investing.

To help you understand, the Chinese zodiac runs on a 60-year cycle, as the 12 animals occur in combination with each of the five elements of traditional Chinese cosmology: wood, water, fire, metal, and earth.

The “wood horse,” which is up this year, represents “instability and disruption,” according to a Hong Kong feng shui expert named Master Koon in a Wall Street interview. He mentioned that a previous wood horse year, 1894, saw war break out between China and Japan.

“Property, the stock market, the economy, politics—they’re all unstable,” said Master Koon. “So investments need to be conservative.”

While people like Master Koon are highly-respected by some businessmen that they even hire them for their enterprises, there will always be contradictions in their interpretations.

In the same report from Wall Street, some stockbrokers like CLSA or Crédit Lyonnais Securities Asia (CLSA) Asia-Pacific Markets, even hired their own team of feng shui diviners. And for them, this year is a great year for investing in stocks. The exact opposite of Master Koon’s forecast.

So whose interpretation could be true? The answer is really up to you and your decisions and actions.

If you gamble your hard-earned money by trading stocks without proper knowledge or guidance, and short-term goals are unclear, you will literally be doomed.

But if you plan and set your sights on the future and you save and invest now for your long-term goals, then this year’s negative forecast won’t affect your life entirely. In fact, the “negative” outlook for this year would be a blessing in disguise for you. You can slowly accumulate shares/units every month at cheaper prices.

But who really knows if this year is going to be a good or bad year for stocks? How bad is bad? And how do you define the word bad in investing?

Is Jollibee Crashing?

Some of our readers and followers have been asking why (JFC) Jollibee’s share prices are falling down like snow in Canada. It gets colder and colder each day. Is our favorite local fastfood chain (well, not my personal favorite palately) losing money?

If you look at the chart above, JFC’s share prices from 1994 which was at around P6.30 has climbed up to P151.60 in 2014 (today!). That’s a whopping growth of 2,306%! Imagine if you have invested P2,000 in 1994 and just left it growing without even adding more of your savings. It would have grown to P46,210 this year!

With the Philippine economy continuously moving up and Jollibee’s expanding all around the globe, there’s no other reason for you not to invest now in growing companies to achieve your long-term goals. No need to fear.

Do you really have to rely on feng shui for your investment and your future?

Join the OFW UsapangPiso Facebook Group and Forum to learn how to plan your finances the right way and how to grow your money in various financial instruments and investment vehicles such as stocks, mutual funds, UITF’s, bonds, money market, real estate, and others.

P.S. 1. Bro. Bo Sanchez has appointed me as a coach for our young and new investors at the TrulyRichClubsocial site. It’s a fun, learning family with the purpose of “helping good people become rich”. I’m inviting you to join the TrulyRichClub too and email me at burngutierrezblog@yahoo.com.ph if you have any questions. Click here to join!